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Music - My parents (mother) started me in private piano lessons when I was 6 years old. The teacher Edith Woodall, lived around the corner. Used to walk or ride my bike unless it was raining. I remember there used to be what seemed like a lot of dogs running loose. She was associated with the Pi Mu method. I participated in many piano concerts, from Thousand Palms to Escondido to Reseda. In 1972 I had my friend Alan accompany me on drums at one of my concerts. One of my mom's favorite stories was when I was playing at one of these concerts, the piano lid fell. I stopped playing, walked around picked up the lid, sat back down and resumed from where I was. And of course, Chopin was under a minute. Played at a couple school functions in elementary school, ala Christmas programs. I remember playing "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles" at a cub scouts meeting. Piano lessons ended when I went to junior high. Formed a band with Randy Ralke (vocal & drums), Alan Marks (drums), Randy Saltzman (bass) and Bob Yallen (guitar) called Loadstone. I remember playing Joy To The World & Spinning Wheel. Most rehearsals were at Alan's house in Encino. Played a few times at Portola jr. high. Randy and I tried to keep the dream alive, in high school Randy, Bob & I added Jon Quinsons to the band. We played at Tarzana Elementary for something I can't remember. During junior high school I also took guitar lessons and experimented with drums. I played a Vox Jaguar organ. I also had a silver sparkle Ludwig drumset. Electric guitar with a Vox amp from Beechlers Music on Ventura, Encino. Took guitar lessons at Ernie Ball (Ventura/Corbin) and a Guitar Shop (can't remember the name) on Canby, north of Sherman Way. Use to ride my bike there with the guitar on my back. They sold Kustom amps, with their 1970's padded look. One of my adult neighbors, Charles Mallory, was a professional bass player and had a 4 track recording studio in his house. He was nice enough to allow Randy (Drums) and I (Piano/Guitar) come in and record a couple of my original tunes with Charles helping on Bass. Still have the original recording on a blue cassette. Reseda High School had a reputation for it's music programs under the leadership of Leonard Gagliardi, so that's where I went. In high school I started my addiction with the brass beast, the trumpet. Reseda high school had an award winning marching band and an even more award winning jazz band. The Jazz band gave monthly swing era dances (at the Reseda Women's club on Lindley) to raise money for the trips to jazz festivals (competitions). The Monterey Jazz Festival was always one of the big ones, besides, Reseda usually had quite a few participants of the all state honor band. I played in Jazz band in 11th grade and 12th grade, marching/concert band all 3 years, 10th, 11th, 12th. Mr "G" was old school. Carried a bullhorn for marching band to make sure he was heard. Extra rehearsals were not uncommon. He stressed time, intonation and playing with emotion. One of his favorite sayings was "Always play with emotion and let it come through in all your music!" Played in musicals every year for the drama dept. Two on keyboard, Hickory Dickory Rock, The Magic Box and the last one on trumpet The Boyfriend. During high school Randy and I tried to get many bands going, usually rehearsing at his place. Wanted to be the next Chicago, Blood Sweat & Tears, etc. Played in the youth band at the Canoga School of Music. Did a few concerts with them, one I remember was an overnighter on Catalina. The band all wore the same shirt, a hawaiian style pullover and the other a long sleeve, high collar, blue with metal thingies (I'll replace with the real word when I can remember it). Both of the local music stores, Music Scene (Loehmans plaza, still in business) and Reseda House of Music Reseda/Sherman way had youth jazz bands. As a trumpet player... I floated the first couple years. I practiced, not religiously. Trumpet didn't come easy. In 12th grade I started lessons with Dolph Brust. Big breath. Snap valves hard. The Claude Gordon system. Some things were getting much better, range wasn't one of them. The end of the school year and summer my chops started to come together. Valley college started in September. Ended up playing lead in the B band and 4th in the A band. Dolph showed up with copies of the 1st trumpet music so he could critique me as I played in a concert. Something he wrote on the last song, "Great from 5th to 1st." I worked my ass off. Still taking lessons with Dolph, although not much longer. One of my Reseda bandmates also helped me immensely. Greg "Claude" Hollands, Alto Sax. (Tenor Sax, Flute, Clarinet) Greg is the only person I know that practiced more than I did, he wasn't allowed to play in the house after 9pm because others had to sleep, Greg would go to Reseda Blvd /Ventura Blvd intersection and practice on the bus stop. He helped me learn how to sight read. After reading page after page of sax solos and clarinet etudes with Greg, reading a trumpet part wasn't ever a concern. Starting in high school and continuing for many years (decades) longer, I got together a few of us to play Christmas Carols on Candy Cane Lane (Woodland Hills). After all those years, I now have a collection of 50 tunes arranged for 2 trumpets and 2 trombones. (or opt tenor sax for trb 1. Tuba on trombone 2) I was lucky to have a lot of great players over the years. Of course I'm forgetting some... Thanks to Rick, John, Richard, Brian, Jim, Don, Kevin, Norm, Sal, Pat, Scott, Marc, Frank, Lee, Roch, Scott, Ron, Early, for playing for all that loose change. Played in most of the local college jazz bands, Los Angeles Valley college under the direction of Don Nelligan and Dick Carlson. Santa Monica College and all the Jazz Bands at Cal State Northridge. While in college took the songwriting and commercial music classes. Wrote and recorded a few original tunes. Disco music anyone? One of my early hits. I Really Did Try, LAVC Marching band, directed by Richard Pope and co-director Bob Dawson. Bob was also the music director at the Church On The Way, also a Reseda Regent a few years before me. The Valley College band was unlike other marching bands, we didn't march. We walked from one formation to the next. Something else that made the band different was the use of electric keyboard, guitar and bass. Bob Dawson and others did custom arrangements for the band of current songs, often featurng players in a solo setting. One song had a slide trumpet duet with myself and Norm Cowen. The band was a regular at the Santa Claus Lane Parade in hollywood. High notes were the norm, one of my favorite tricks was on the slide trumpet, hit a high D and smoothly slide up to a high G. No doubt it drove the trumpeters on the other side of the field crazy. The band was quite rebellous, from our non-traditional style to the Cheers the band would use during the games. The school (Valley College) newspaper did an article on me after I was given a scholarship from NARAS. What would college be like if not for having multiple ensembles for playing your arrangements? Sunny Gets Blue, another vocal featuring Patti Magee. Yes, I had just barely but enough of a crush on her. I've been trying to find her, if you have any idea feel free to forward it on. Like most brass players, I played in any rehearsal band I could find. Ed Lowes' band on Thursday night, Ed Bueller on Sunday afternoons, Dick Charles on Tuesdays, etc. etc.. (more to be added) I'll chronologically list my trumpet teachers as I remember them, no offense to those I have yet to remember. They all had an influence on my playing. Dolph Brust, Tom Scott, John Newsome (jazz), John Clyman, Cat Anderson, Bill Peterson, Uan Racy, Mario Gunari, Bob Findley, Bobby Shew, Chuck Findley, How could I talk about trumpet and not mention Robb Stewart. He's the master at horn repair. I first met him when he was working at Bartold's Music and I needed some emergency horn repair. He conveniently moved to Van Nuys, around the corner from LAVC. Not only did he do all my horn repairs, he built my slide trumpets. The first one just barely worked, it wasn't too long until he figured it out and built my second slide trumpet with a F attachment. I loved playing the slide trumpet, besides the obvious benefit of the slide, it was so open and free blowing I used it in live loud gigs. In 2007 I had a couple trumpet students so my horn went back into the shop to be overhauled. If you ever need horn work I highly recommend Robb Stewart. My old business card. Like most trumpet players, I have a few horns. My first horn in high school was a Getzen, and not one of those cool silver plated with the push button spit valves. Next was a silver-plated ML Los Angeles Benge, which I still have. Although the silver is worn off in many places. Then came a Yamaha flugelhorn. Next was a ML Bach. At a garage sale I found a Quesnon flugel horn. I then found a CG silver-plated Benge which I played a lot. Stacy Rowles made turquoise valve caps for me, along with a trumpet necklace. Add in the slide trumpets, A Bach C Trumpet and a piccolo trumpet and a King coronet. Because of the slide trumpet, getting both a valve trombone and slide trombone wasn't a big stretch. Did one recording on slide trombone not long after I got it for a commercial. The video showed a little kid in front of a marching band struggling to play. I'm guessing a real trombonist played too well to match the video. SuperTrumpets, the name of a group I had for a short while. Four trumpets playing harmonized solos of Clifford Brown, Fats, Miles, and other jazz trumpet artists. Sax, Trombone and rhythm section filled out the rest of the band. We played at The Lighthouse, Sept 30, 1982. I had help from Dan Beininfield putting it together. I did all the arrangements and transcribing. I approached it using SuperSax as my example. (these arrangement are for sale on my music website) Besides The Lighthouse, we played GIO's, Musicians Institute and a few other places. One of my best memories was meeting and playing with Al Kaplan on bass trumpet, the bari part so to speak. He was everything I was taught a pro was. Jim Seely played trumpet. Scott Page, drums. I traded playing trumpet on some demos for some studio time to record a couple of the Super Trumpet arrangements. These are never to be finished, the rhythm section is a keeper. The A-Train. Bobby Shew took a few of my arrangements to Europe and recorded a couple. As soon as I find the tape I'll put it up. This guy recorded one of them, Ceora. I transcribed a bunch of Chuck Findley trumpet solos, I sent Jamey Abersold a letter asking if he would be interested in publishing the book. Currently that are residing at Dr. Gio Washington-Wright's excellent site about L.A. Studio Musicians. Playing in the band at CSUN I was fortunate to play under Ladd Mcintosh. I played in his personal big band for a while, played on his record Energy. The picture for the cover was taken at Disneyland when the CSUN "B" band played there. Played trumpet on a few jingles, Chevy Hot Streak, Datsun, Cherokee Shoes, Mousersize. In 1982 I was an instructor at the Aspen Summer Music Festival, teaching Jazz improv, jazz arranging and directing the jazz band. And no, I wasn't auditioning for a role as a terrorist. Drove up with one of the drum teachers, Bob Moore, and his wife Marden. Had a great time with Marden, hiked, celebrated her b-day at a 31 flavors. Frank and I have hired Bob for gigs a few times, I'm still in touch with Marden. Music Copying... Yup. Been there, done that. I started back in the old days when you used a pen and a bottle of ink and Valle music was still on Ventura Blvd. I used to use a white t-shirt to wipe my pen clean. My friends would want the shirt when it was full of pen marks. The ruler with the tape to elevate the ruler off the paper. I used an Esterbrook and Pelikin pens. Electric eraser, electric pencil sharpener, Ozlid machine. Valle Music, where to start? My first trip was with Rick Austinson in 1974, Valle music was still on Ventura Blvd in Studio City. Bought some "professional" paper and both the Alphabet set and the Instrument stamp kit. All these years later I still visit. The last few years I was in was to have some music I printed on my printer to be enlarged and pages taped together for Cruise Ships, Disney, Universal Studios. When I was fighting deadlines I would often ride my bike there and wait for Jim to show up and open. Jim and Bob Dolan (owner) have always done me right. I started out copying for the LAVC Marching band, Bob Florence Big Band, Church On The Way and a few others. Almost over night, I got computerized. Once I did, I never looked back. Once I moved the mouse I didn't move the pen again. Got my first computer in 1990 from Electronic Music Box in Sherman Oaks, A Macintosh IIci with a 20 inch black & white monitor. A HP 30dpi laser printer. Finale2.6, a software program that at the time held the honor as the program with the steepest learning curve. Midi keyboard, Proteus sound module. Midi interface and misc. cables. It would take a couple days to get the package together so I left only with a big box of Finale. Started to read the manuals. Understood half of it, the other half clueless. Command key? Shift-Option Click? What language is this? Took a couple Finale lessons from Jon Chase, started going to the Finale User Group Meeting held the last Wednesday of the month at the Electronic Music Box. Christopher Yavelow was leading the user group, he was leaving the states and asked me to take over, I thanked him but turned it down. Bonnie Janofsky took him up on the offer and led the group. My only regret was if I had taken the non-paying job, I would have had a foot in the door with Coda Music (Finale Software). For a few years Frank and I were the people behind Bring Back Swing and then Eventertainment. A casual service. During this time we worked on putting together a band of 6 horns (2 trumpets, trombone, alto, tenor, bari & rhythm section), I did over two hundred arrangements. Some of these are "off the record" standards voiced out for a smaller orchestra. At the same time, Frank and I tried to get a more hip version of the 6 horn band, we rehearsed at Frank's garage on Sundays. Great memories, great musicians. Of course, adapting the 6 horn arrangements for 3 horns was my next project. As I've been moving the last couple years I realized how much I don't need to carry a big file cabinet of arrangements when I already had so many already in my computer. Recopying the tediously hand copied arrangements was good busy-body work. Visit my music website if you are interested in any of my music. In 1987 Frank, Roch and I joined up to create the "High Velocity Horns," the horn section for the future. I believe it was Roland that was just coming out with a product that converted an audio signal into midi data. We were hoping to ride the new technology to the top of the who's who in the Los Angeles studio scene. It was later in 1987 when I joined Roch on a short west coast tour with The Temptations, Mary Wells and Martha Reeves. We called it the "Hurry up and wait" tour. The tour manager kept telling us to hurry up, we continuously had to wait for David Ruffin. It was the closing lick of the show that prompted the writing of the hit song, Chop Check. Some of my clients Kenny James - Did charts and arrangements for him for years and years. It all started with his drummer Mark Sanders giving Kenny my number. Since then we've worked together on numerous Cruise Ship shows and song festivals. I really like his singing, he even sounds good singing along with my hacking at the piano when we are working out an arrangement. He passed my name along to Tony Warren who is now deceased. Thanks to Tony my name started spreading, doing charts for singers, takedowns off tapes. Matt Harris - Composer, Arranger, Pianist. Currently he is the head of the jazz department at CSUN. Started copying for him in 1992. In my Music Backup folder, I have over 175 projects I have worked on with him. Matt introduced me to the Wojahn Brothers jingle service, I've worked on over 140 jingles, from Jack In The Box to Bud Lite. He also hooked me up with Audio By The Bay, a production company that produced shows and music for Disney, California, Tokyo Disney, Universal Studios Japan and many more. Moshe Noy Orchestra - Ended my trumpet playing career with this band. Did hundreds of arrangements for his band over the years, still doing arrangements for him. Travelled around the country and to Europe. Over the years his band sounded better and better. At one point we were working 2-3 times a weekend, only at the best places. For many the years the horn section stayed the same. Scott Wright and I on trumpets, Mark Costner on Alto Sax, Frank Villafranca on Tenor Sax, Kevin Bradley on trombone. Before that it was Roch Borndenave on trombone until he left for greener pastures and a career with his voice. After my absence Mike McGuffey took my place and Moshe eliminated one sax. Jerry Brookings - Bandleader in sin city, Las Vegas. A bass player from Gary Indiana, played with Lou Rawls. Started working for him in 1992, as of 07/30/08 I am working on a Marvin Gaye Tribute for him. Jerry introduced me to his friend, guitarist Phil Upchurch Frankie Crawford - Piano/MD for R&B legend Jeffrey Osborne. Starting working with Frankie in 1998 assembling the printed music for Jeffrey's show. Lenny LaCroix - Composer, arranger, pianist, musical director. This is a small world, or at least as far as musicians in Los Angeles. The first time I ever talked to him was in the early 70's when my neighbor Charles Mallory gave me his name for piano lessons. I can't remember much more besides I never took lessons from him. Started copying for in in 1994. Worked on shows for Tony Danza and too many Cruise Ships to admit. For a couple years I worked on a weekly show, "R&B Live," produced by Bill Hammond. Each week I transcribed anywhere from 1 to 10 tunes, the following morning the music was messengered to the office. I was doing charts for R&B Live by hand at first. At first I was still doing all work by hand, since I wanted to keep a copy so after finishing all the songs I would ride my bike up to the 24 hour Kinkos to make copies of my work. The band rehearsed and performed the next night. Big time stars (Chaka, Whitney, etc.) would show up and sing. Never had a fly enough ride to make an appearance at the club. Quinn Harris - Quinn Harris, exMD (MusicalDirector) for Tavaras. Until he retired he was also a Middle and high school teacher. I was introduced to the band via Bob Ryan, trombone/arranger from Boston. He encouraged Frank Villafranca and trumpet player William Smith to come out to Los Angeles to become the next horn section in town. William didn't last long, Bob about the same. Frank is still here and threatening daily to leave. :) Big Bad Voodoo Daddy - Copied for their ? CD, a live show and their appearance on Third Rock From The Sun. Currently, The San Gabriel Seven are performing and recording a whole bunch of my original compositions. Chop Check, from their CD Chop Check. The Bone Specialist, from their CD Blame It On Rio. You're Burnin' Man, from their CD Blame It On Rio. Anie Speaks, from their CD Blame It On Rio. AKH Puppy, from their soon to be released CD Cottonwood Station. Cottonwood Station, from their soon to be released CD Cottonwood Station. And Daisy Makes Five, from their soon to be released CD Cottonwood Station. Phat Sushi, from their soon to be released CD Cottonwood Station. A few of my most memorable gigs...
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